ALBERTA HEALTH SERVICE #AHS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON - TopicsExpress

ALBERTA HEALTH SERVICE #AHS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING There’s great entertainment in a strategy for “image and reputation management” commissioned last year by Alberta Health Services. Obtained by the NDP through Freedom of Information, this study cost taxpayers $16,000 before the whole AHS board was fired by the government in June 2013. It is now another dead fish atop a steaming pile of expensive, half-forgotten studies; but the odour lingers. David Eggen, the NDP health critic and leadership candidate, is not exaggerating when he calls the report a “funny little snapshot into the world of dysfunction.” Most interesting are the report’s villains. There’s the media and the opposition, of course (how predictable is that?) but also, more surprisingly, the government of Alberta. The Hill and Knowlton study argues that with newly effective opposition in Alberta, AHS needs to get as far away as possible from the government. “The rise of a relatively well-resourced, more effective official Opposition party is a new development in recent Alberta politics,” it says. calgaryherald/news/politics/Braid+While+independent+health+board+would+good+government+even+better/10135357/story.html